IEA-USP's deputy director now deputy coordinator of the UBIAS network

Participants of the fourth directors' meeting of the UBIAS network, held in Birmingham

The restructuring of the UBIAS network's governance during the 4th Directors' Meeting, held in Birmingham between June 20 and 22, led the IEA-USP's deputy director Professor Guilherme Ary Plonski to take over a position of deputy coordinator. It has also been decided that São Paulo will host the fifth edition of the meeting. According to Plonski, a professor of the business and engineering schools at USP, the event will take place in the first semester of 2018.

"The meeting in Birmingham has brought important prospects on the future of the network, including the restructuring of its governance. A debate has raised topics that concern us directly, such as research funding from the EU, interdisciplinarity linking science and art, gender issues in the academic environment and others," Plonski said.

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Formed in 2010, the UBIAS network brings together 34 institutes based on universities from around the world, and discusses the production of knowledge and conducts joint scientific activities with the presence of prominent researchers. The Intercontinental Academia (ICA), one of its leading programs, provides scientific exchange between generations, disciplines, cultures and continents, especially for young scientists aged between 30 and 40.

Professor Martin Grossmann, former director of the IEA-USP, gave an overview of the ICA on a panel on June 20. The same session has been attended by researchers Valtteri Arstila and Vanessa Hellmann, both participants of the project, who joined the discussion on results and future prospects. Two editions of the ICA have already been developed, the first one on the subject "Time" and the second one on "Human Dignity". The content of the research on "Time", on which the participants have been working since the meeting in São Paulo, will support the creation of a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), to be available for free on the Coursera platform.

Methodologies to assess the work of the ICA, privacy, and new social and international media have been some of the further issues discussed by the directors.

Proposed and organized by the Institute of Advance Studies of the University of Birmingham, the directors' meeting has been planned in order to share experiences, promote cultural and scientific exchanges, and articulate inter-institutional partnerships.